Ohio State has lost four straight men’s basketball games for the first time since 2007-08 and is tied for eighth in the Big Ten standings at 2-4 with Illinois and Northwestern.

This is foreign territory in coach Thad Matta’s 10 years with the Buckeyes.

“If we wanted no one else to believe in us, I think we’re at that point,” senior guard Aaron Craft said, according to the transcript provided by Bob Baptist of the Columbus Dispatch after the latest loss at Nebraska. “It’s 12 guys on the team, six coaches, one athletic trainer and that’s all we’ve got right now.”

If their aspirations remain winning a conference championship, there is no more margin of error. And even if they do win out, it’s hard to see Michigan State (6-0) losing four games or Iowa (4-1) dropping three more. And that still leaves Michigan (5-0), Wisconsin (3-2), Purdue (3-2), Minnesota (3-3) and Indiana (2-3) ahead of them in the standings.

The rub is this team isn’t championship caliber at this point, so devoting any thoughts to banners is silly. This is a team that has to learn how to win again.

“We need consistency,” Matta said in the same transcript. “When we play ourselves back into it, when something doesn’t go well, I think the thing I see the most is we’re not able to answer the call. We’ve got to have some mental toughness to make the next play. Right now we’re clinging onto mistakes. You’ve got to play forward.”

The frustrating thing for Matta and Co. is the bulk of the roster is three- and four-year players, guys who have won championships and played in a Final Four and appeared in a couple of Elite Eights.

Experienced veterans, let alone those with rings, shouldn’t be falling apart like a used Yugo down the stretch of winnable games.

“We’ve got to face reality and try to get as much as we can squared away,” Matta said.

Collectively, the Buckeyes are a very smart team. Sometimes cerebral people can get handcuffed — paralysis by analysis if you will — by overactive minds. High achievers can trip themselves by focusing on what went wrong instead of what went right.

This team feels the pressure it’s putting on itself.

“It’s like there’s a black cloud over us right now. We have to find a way to get it off,” Craft said. “We’re running out of time. Nothing’s guaranteed. We’ve just got to do it. There’s a two-game home stand coming up.”

Does that sound like a confident player or someone looking for something to go wrong? Does that sound like a guy having fun playing in tight basketball games or a player dreading failure?

“We’re not the same team that won 15 games in a row right now,” Craft said. “We’ve got to go back and find that again.”

On that point he’s correct. The Buckeyes look like imposters compared to the team that took the floor on Dec. 4 and dominated Maryland 76-60.

The controlled penetration, the crisp passing, the open looks, the connectedness on offense is gone. And so is the production. In the four-game losing streak, the Buckeyes haven’t shot better than 44 percent, and they’ve been beaten in fastbreaks 46-18. They’re also shooting just 30 percent from the 3-point arc. Their turnovers have gone from about 11 a game to 16 a contest and even that stat doesn’t show just how poorly they’ve been down the stretch of these last four games.

The bad offense is affecting their once lock-down man-to-man defense. Iowa scored 44 points in the paint, while Minnesota and Nebraska each got 38 there as lock down has morphed into revolving door. Once brilliant in converting turnovers into points, the Buckeyes are the victims in that stat line, losing 26-17 to Michigan State, 27-11 to Iowa, 15-13 to Minnesota and 21-17 to Nebraska.

The last three times the carelessness has come against packed-in zone defenses.

“I love this team. I love the work we’ve put in. I love all those guys in there. We have to figure this out,” Craft said. “I think we will, but sooner rather than later, hopefully. I think we’re capable.”

In the meantime, feel free to panic Buckeye Nation.

Rob McCurdy covers Ohio State men’s basketball for the Media Network of Central Ohio and can be reached at rmccurdy@gannett.com or 419-521-7241. On Twitter follow @McMotorsport.